Xenoblade Chronicles X takes place in New Los Angeles, a city built in the ruins of a crashed starship. Inhabited by survivors, the ship has been converted into a series of shopping arcades, neighborhoods, and parks, all guarded by a defense organization called BLADE.

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BLADE maintains a fleet of mecha who patrol the surface of the planet, gathering resources, searching for Life Points dropped during the original starship crash, and claiming territory to exploit natural resources.

Five distinct continents are available to explore.The continents are each distinctive biomes: grasslands, volcanic, desert, icy, and wooded.

In addition to plant life, dangerous monsters inhabit the landscape, as well as intelligent extraterrestrial species.

Like its predecessor, Xenoblade Chronicles X features a huge open world. Characters can freely explore enormous continents full of monsters and hidden areas. Using the Wii U Gamepad, players manage a hexagonal map grid. Traveling across the world, they seize control points to unlock new resources.

Players wander the world installing Data Probes in likely locations. These probes reveal the location of hidden objects and resources.

Players may perform quests through BLADE and aid the citizens of New Los Angeles in their tasks. By completing quests, characters unlock relationship webs between citizens of the city.

These webs open up new quest lines and opportunities for players. As the player interacts with more people, their intergration with the New Los Angeles population creates reciprocal and beneficial relationships.

Party-based combat carries over in a manner similar to the Xenoblade. Combining action elements and maneuverability with a traditional RPG ability structure, Xenoblade Chronicles X requires characters to manage position, defenses, and attack types.

Riding and controlling a weaponized mech, players can explore every inch of the massive open world displayed in gorgeous high-definition graphics. The world is filled with strange and imaginative creatures, from small bugs to giant dinosaurs.

As characters improve in different classes, they will learn new combat and defensive skills, or Arts. Players can customize the Arts palette as their characters learn new Arts. All Arts have a “recast" time – once cast, the player must wait out a “cooldown" period before that Art can be used again.

Players can customize everything about the main character's appearance, including gender, shapes, height, skin color, voice and tattoos.